Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum will announce his presidential bid in Pennsylvania next month, according to his campaign.

“I can confirm Sen. Santorum will make an announcement on June 6 from southwestern Pennsylvania near where his grandfather worked in the coal mines after he came here from Italy,” spokeswoman Virginia Davis said in an e-mail.

“This location is significant because when Sen. Santorum’s grandfather left fascist Italy, he came to this country for America’s freedom and the opportunity our nation afforded him.”

Santorum, a former U.S. senator, has lavished attention on Iowa, courting social conservatives.

Iowa supporters predicted he would choose his home state for his announcement so that he could be surrounded by his entire family. Santorum is a father of seven, including a toddler daughter with fragile health.

Santorum’s Iowa coalitions director Jamie Johnson said: “For the whole Santorum family, including all the relatives of this large and devout Christian family, this will be a very moving event, one which they all wish their Italian immigrant grandfather could have lived to have seen, namely, his grandson announcing a run for the Presidency of the United States. Only in America!”